A fateful encounter, part two

Chapter eight

When I awoke I was lying down inside the administrator's quarters on a small bed. I blinked a few times and turned over to my side. The room was mostly empty minus a round table in the center and a few desks at the window, presumably for overseeing the training below. Grandma Trya and Cain were talking about something, but I couldn't really hear what they were talking about. My legs were in pain and this strange pulsing wouldn't stop bothering my eyes. I decided to turn toward the wall and try to just go back to sleep.

From Tryamon's point of view :

"It seems as though bad actors in the tower have taken notice of little Su." She said with an exasperated tone.

"So much so that the young ones have seemingly been poisoned against her." Cain added as he glanced back at Suzuka's small frame.

"It would be best if she were confined to the study until she gets a bit older."

Tryamon sighed deeply and closed her eyes. She had a feeling that people may want to harm Su, but she didn't think they would be so underhanded, or that they would act so soon. Su was just a tiny little thing. She opened her eyes again and stood up, walking over to the window overseeing the training room. The area was mostly empty now, save for a few stragglers that were doing their utmost to catch up.

"I think it best as well, at least for another year or two. I'll be placing you in charge of her for her time away from the study as that will become necessary. She has an overabundance of energy and knowledge beyond her years. It would be too cruel to simply keep her away from the world."

Cain took a knee and bowed his head. "As you wish, Grand Magus. I shall take her up once she regains her strength."

Tryamon turned away from the window and made to leave the area.

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Three years later :

Time after the incident with the young fairy boys flew past gradually. I was barred from leaving without an escort. Since I hadn't really gone anywhere beforehand due to my tender age, I didn't miss it.

I spent the majority of that time learning how to read and write. Boy was it difficult! I felt like I was learning five ancient languages at once from a picture book. I knew they'd be essential though, so I muscled through it since I was in a place of mystics where being able to read would be one of my most valuable skills. That much was evident when I arrived in this world. I suppose the most revealing thing was the dreams I'd have at night. No longer were they random occurrences of a thousand different thoughts and imagined worlds. Now when I dreamt, I'd appear in a vibrant grassland for as far as the eye could see with a single figure. It looked like a human male in his early twenties that'd be laying on the grass.

Oftentimes I'd walk over and lay down on the grass next to him and stare into the sky. There He'd tell me about the events of his life and how he used to write. I'd listen and occasionally laugh at the absurdities of his written works much to his chagrin. Eventually, he told me his reason for being there. He and I were one and the same. Or rather, The heightened intelligence and thought I had was directly tied to his existence in my head, as he was reincarnated into this body along with me. He then explained the reason why I would have migraines and headaches when I tried to think about particular memories.

It all came down to two things. The first thing was that this current me that is alive and thinking was likely a spirit that existed in this world first, but for some reason or another was passing on. He theorized that the Goddess of my ancestry plucked my spirit out of the cycle of rebirth and made me the vessel for his incarnation. Since my spirit was like a blank canvas, his own imprinted its knowledge and lived experiences on mine, gifting me knowledge. This made some semblance of sense as I used to have dreams about parents I had never met and places I had never been that seemed to be from before I had merged. Still, there was a clear distinction between the two of us. It is because of that distinction that a conflict would arise when I would attempt to draw upon not yet assimilated memories.

I suppose this made sense? What it really sounded like to me was that my ancestral goddess or whatever was being really cheap. I was basically RECYCLED and used to help this other me Reincarnate! What the hell is that? Why couldn't she just give him his own body?!? Just how much of a Meiser is this Ancestral Deity! Why did my newborn self have to be merged as well? I'm going to find my ancestral goddess and give her a piece of my mind! I bet she was just lazy since from what other me said she was drinking Sake the entire time!

A hand came down on the back of my head as these thoughts ran their course.

What the hell? Who had the audacity to hit me! I turned around on my heel and looked at my attacker and immediately went pale.

"Are you so powerful that you can just daydream during a training session?" Cain asked as he looked down at me with the fury of a thousand suns.

That's right I was training with Master Cain on Mana manipulation! I bowed down and begged for forgiveness.

"I'm sorry Master Cain! I got lost thinking about the past. It won't happen again!"

Being on Cain's bad side was not an enviable thing. Remember those kids from that harassment incident? They've been doing the most grueling training ever since. Cain's reasoning was something along the lines of: "If you have enough time to harass other people, you have enough time to Run one thousand laps around the Tower grounds, blind." After that those kids were the busiest fairies in the tower.

Cain placed his hand on my shoulder and pulled me back up to a standing position.

"You've grown from your time in the tower with the Grand Magus, but now is the time to put what you've learned into practice. You cannot lose yourself in your mind for your mind is the catalyst for the creation of your magics. Focus."

I nodded and looked down at myself. I really had grown. At six years old I'm Four feet six inches (excluding my horns which add four inches) and I weigh eighty-five pounds. It's a little bit heavier and taller than the average human female.

Aaah! That doesn't matter! I don't wanna be whacked by Cain again. I inhaled deeply and tried to feel the flow of Mana from my head down to my extremities.

I felt it! A subtle tingling sensation throughout my body was an indicator that one was properly circulating their mana through their body. At least that was something I read in my studies over these past years.

Cain walked around me with his hands folded behind his back. He was watching to see if I had correctly distributed my mana.

"You're neglecting your thighs and lower back muscles. Try flexing and you'll notice"

He said as he stopped in front of me.

"How can you tell Master?" I asked. I always thought it was strange that he could just… know.

"Us Fairy folk are beings of energy in the first place. I think it would be odd if we could not map the flow ourselves. Don't you agree?"

I nodded in understanding and redoubled my Mana extension, taking extra care to reach the previously mentioned areas.

"Now try flexing your muscle groups one at a time. You should feel your upper tension limit increase dramatically."

I did just as he asked. Though I don't really know what I'm supposed to be feeling. My past self wasn't someone who focused on their body either.

"Um… I don't feel anything."

"Really? But if I recall correctly Flesh and blood creatures such as yourself should have an innate ability to sense their upper limits."

I tilted my head to the side and stared at him in confusion. What did he think normal people were like? I mean I'm pretty sure there are some warriors and people who know that type of stuff at base, but that isn't the average. Most humans only felt those types of things after dedicating time to cultivating their bodies.

Cain stared back with a single bead of sweat trickling down his forehead. The once-imposing monolith of a man looked now like a confused child.

"That's… not how that works you know. Usually, creatures like me would only know their upper limit after using them to reach said limit, which is something I have yet to do."

Cain's dull grey oval eyes brightened up beneath his bushy eyebrows.

"Then let us put them to the test!" He then leaned down and ripped a chunk of earth from the ground and tossed it at me.

I dodged out the way as the piece of ground flew at me. What was he thinking?!? That I would just casually grab that out of the air? NO WAY.

"What are you doing? I need to see if you've done the Mana infusion properly."

"You're going to kill me if you do it like this Master! You seem to be forgetting, but I'm only six years old! Even If I enhance my muscles with mana, I'd still only be multiplying my base strength, which we don't even know, by however much mana I used. This is just too much too fast you crazy…"

I stopped there not because I was done, but because Cain now had multiple veins popping out of his giga bald head. Suddenly he deflated.

"I see… You're right. I've never trained a fleshling like you before so I didn't know such things."

I was flabbergasted. Why did Grandma assign someone to train me that didn't even know how my body worked?

I stood cautiously and observed him. Cain could just be putting on an act in order to catch me off guard. It wouldn't be the first time. I can still remember how he got me to stop pranking others by counter-pranking me over these years in various fashions. It was frighteningly effective and had helped me when I snuck out of the tower and explored the city above.

A smile formed on his face as he leaned down and picked up another chunk of ground.

"I will think of a way to test your strength limits later, for now, we simply need to confirm that you've adequately distributed your mana, yes?"

I nodded. I didn't like the way this was going. I looked around for doors out of the arena. Only two existed and both were behind Cain. I clicked my tongue in annoyance. There was no way that I was going to go along with whatever nonsense that Cain had in store for me.

"Then we can see how well you do that by dodging! This way I'll observe whether or not you've applied enough mana!"

I suddenly felt a slight pain in my eyes as the thought of getting crushed by the rocks entered my mind.

Fortunately for me, the red-headed boy from the incident had just walked in from behind Master Cain. Cain turned around and took notice of the boy. That was just enough time for me to attempt a mad dash. Both the red-headed boy and Cain turned around and watched in shock(the boy) and confirmation(Cain) as I sprinted past them. Once I reached the door I opened it and slammed it shut, breathing hard.

"Wasn't that like twenty meters?" I said aloud as I cleared the distance in eight seconds.

I felt giddy at the idea and leaped down the hallway, thinking about the feat I just accomplished, and at six years old!.

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"Wasn't that the dem-"

Cain stared daggers at the boy, forcing his mouth shut from the understanding that he would have to endure a great deal of suffering if he continued his sentence.

"I mean, the horned girl that the Grand Magus took in?" He corrected

Cain lightened his gaze

"So? You're done with your laps Gydion?"

Gydion nodded. He could feel the intense burning in his thighs, he was still not used to this. He wanted to stop. It took a massive amount of his days light hours and he was falling behind on his academic studies to the point where his instructors were considering expulsion. He was determined to not let that be.

"Sir, when will I be able to stop doing these laps?"

Cain, who was now walking towards the exit that Suzuka had left through, turned his head just enough to see Gydion out of the corner of his eyes.

"You still haven't figured it out? You are a blockheaded fool like your father."

Gydion was taken aback by the lack of caution in Cain's slander.

"Sir. Please refrain from speaking ill of the Warmaster Lugh."

Cain stopped in his tracks. No boy was going to advise him on how he spoke about his lessers, not even the sun of the Warmaster.

"Who are you to advise me, boy? Your father is a fool of the highest caliber. Your mind is already poisoned from his stories of battle so much so that you cannot see what the correct course of action is. You've wronged that girl, yet the idea of asking for forgiveness from an 'enemy' like her doesn't so much as pass your mind. How is she your enemy? What exactly has she done to you?"

Gydion trembled underneath the verbal whiplashing that he was receiving, unsure of how to respond.

~That… wench was a child of the horned demons who destroyed and captured my uncles and aunts. Why shouldn't I hate her?~

"She… is the child of the…"

"Speak up, boy!" Cain's voice boomed throughout the room, sending fear straight down into his core.

Gydion fell onto his ass and looked up, metallic tears welling in his eyes.

"She is the child of murderers! People that look just like her killed all of my uncles and aunts!"

Cain laughed.

"How convenient for you to mention them. You didn't even EXIST when they were still alive, boy. Now, let me help you since you are too stupid to understand anything. You are going to go to her and beg for forgiveness, actually no, you are going to swear fealty to her for two centuries."

Gydion's mental cracked as he struggled to comprehend the order he had been given. He fell to the ground, holding his head with both hands as tears of iron streamed from his face.

Cain looked away in disgust and exited the training arena. Just then, two smaller boys, the same boys that had been with him during the incident, came into the arena. Cain completely ignored them as he left while they ran over to the collapsed Gydion.

"Boss Gydion? What happened?" They said in unison.

Gydion forced himself to sit up as he wiped away his tears with his left wrist.

"It's nothing. Go home. I have something I need to do."